


Nowhere Else

by Roselightfairy



Series: Finding a Voice [9]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Aglarond, Discussion of war, Established Relationship, Lock Down Fest, M/M, lockdown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23263777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roselightfairy/pseuds/Roselightfairy
Summary: In preparation of an anticipated attack from nearby Dunland, Éomer has ordered that Aglarond go into lockdown.At least Legolas and Gimli are together.
Relationships: Gimli (Son of Glóin)/Legolas Greenleaf
Series: Finding a Voice [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/939402
Comments: 22
Kudos: 99
Collections: Lock Down Fest





	Nowhere Else

**Author's Note:**

> This work was written for the [Lock Down Fest](https://lockdownfest.tumblr.com/) challenge in the time of COVID-19 as a way of coping with the stress and uncertainty of current events. I don't think I can manage to make this situation into fic just yet, but this story does contain some pretty heavy parallels.
> 
> If you too are looking for an emotional outlet during this time, or at least something to read, the fest is still open until March 30. Check out the Tumblr I linked above if you want to create something!

Gimli opened his eyes on the seventh morning of Aglarond’s full lockdown to find Legolas sitting in the windowsill.

He chuckled sleepily. “My poor love,” he mumbled without lifting his head from the pillow. “Trapped within when you ought to be darting around beneath the sky like a wild thing. Doubtless the horses feel the same confinement.”

Legolas gave a weak smile from the sill, but made no move to return to bed. “Horses are meant for the open air,” he murmured. “I at least had the benefit of spending my youth in open caverns such as these. Surely they are suffering worse than I.”

Gimli rose from the bed, grunting slightly as his joints popped. The seasons had turned enough at least that the air through the open windows was not frigid – but the morning was early enough that the chill of the night still lingered in the dawn air. He took the blanket with him when he stood, wrapping it around his shoulders to keep as much of the bed’s warmth as he might.

Legolas’s legs were long enough that they touched the floor even from his perch on the windowsill; Gimli came to stand between his knees. “Still, I am sorry you were caught up in this,” he said. “You know that had I had any warning this would happen, I would have told you to postpone your visit.”

“And leave you possibly confined indefinitely without me?” Legolas bent down, his back the curve of a bow, to rest his forehead against Gimli’s own and his hands on Gimli’s shoulders. “Nay, I should still have come.”

Gimli sighed. “And had you waited any longer to arrive, I suppose Éomer would have already made the edict. A single rider traveling alone through the valley in absence of any other motion might have roused Dunland’s curiosity more than anything else.”

“So the soldiers at the Hornburg lie in wait,” Legolas murmured. “And we – or rather, our absence – is the bait.” They had discussed this many times; surely Legolas knew Gimli had no new information to give him, but he understood the draw to speak of it anyway. Aglarond was normally self-contained, but they still had regular contact with the Westfold Valley and Edoras – and even dwarves needed fresh air now and again, if none of them seemed quite as affected as Legolas. After a week of being told to stay inside the caves, not to venture out even by one of their secret doors – not even to send a messenger raven – it seemed the isolation weighed on all their minds, a heavy pressure at the base of the sternum, lessened only by speaking of it. Even if their words contained nothing new, that pressure eased somewhat by the simple act of giving voice to the thought, acknowledging that no one could think of anything else. “Did Éomer give you any instruction as to what to do if it is taken?”

“Only to be prepared.” Again, Legolas knew this: the guards and soldiers had tripled on every entrance to Aglarond, every view out. Gimli was fortunate that his chambers faced east – those with windows facing the Gap of Rohan had been forbidden even to open the shutters, to use only the peepholes to view outside. (Legolas’s pacing here was bad enough; Gimli could only imagine what might have occurred had he been denied even that.) “He thinks they will ignore Aglarond if we make little indication of our presence, and he promises that the soldiers at the Hornburg will be prepared to intercept any attack. He does not want to involve us in his wars, after all. But we are in his kingdom now, and” – He shrugged. Aglarond stood in the way, and who could guarantee anything? They had prepared for siege if necessary, with children, the ill, and expectant mothers sheltered in the deepest spaces of the caverns; most of the smithies gone dark – as if the crafters could even spare the energy for their work at this time. Craft was always the highest ideal of dwarven society, but it was another effect of that breathless weight on the chest and stomach – a heaviness so intense that even lifting the arm to draw a draft was sometimes beyond their reach.

Legolas sighed, long and deep. “War,” he said. “I had hoped we were finished with war.”

Gimli shifted the two ends of his blanket-cloak into one hand and reached up to lay the other at the back of Legolas’s neck and guide his head down for a kiss. “I know.” Indeed, Legolas must feel it more keenly than any of them – he who had known only war and hiding for the better part of his life. His bow – the longbow from Galadriel, which he had mostly put aside of late in favor of his smaller bow, better for hunting and sport in the forest – rested in the corner of the room, ready to be strung at the first sign of trouble. “Again, I am sorry that you were drawn into this. You know I would have had it otherwise, had I known.”

“I know.” Legolas kissed him again, deeper this time, wrapping his arms around Gimli’s shoulders and drawing him close enough to keep the blanket around him without Gimli’s hand holding it together. When he pulled back at last, he managed another smile – small, but real. “But I say again, knowing would have changed nothing. I may wish we were done with war and conflict, but even less would I wish you to face those things without me.” He gave a small, breathy laugh. “Indeed, it was in this very place that I was first separated from you in the thick of battle, and I swore to myself that day that I would never allow that to happen again, not while we both live.”

Gimli leaned his forehead against Legolas’s own and let himself remember those times – that night-long battle here, the siege, the separation. He had been led into these caves, where the men of Helm’s Deep had been known to shelter – and in their vast and breathtaking beauty he had seen his life’s purpose . . . but even then there had been this same weight upon his chest, the churning uncertainty that would not allow him to fully appreciate them, not while he knew not if Legolas was safe.

“I know,” he said softly. He moved the hand at Legolas’s neck to his back and tugged very lightly, more a suggestion than anything else. But Legolas obliged him – sliding down from the windowsill and fully into Gimli’s arms. “And while I know you suffer from the confinement more than any of us, I confess I am glad to have you by my side.”

Legolas sighed against him; pressed so close, Gimli could feel him relax, some spring of tension in his taut body uncoiling to leave him warm and pliant in Gimli’s arms. “And I promise,” he said, “there is nowhere else I would rather be.”


End file.
